Sarkozy an­nounces new bid for French pres­i­dency

PARIS — For­mer French leader Ni­co­las Sarkozy launched a fresh bid on Mon­day to win back the pres­i­dency, an­nounc­ing he would seek the nom­i­na­tion of his cen­tre-right party to run in next year’s elec­tion.

The pug­na­cious 61-year-old conservative, who was deeply unpopular by the end of his five years as pres­i­dent, had made no se­cret of his am­bi­tion to re­con­quer the top of­fice.

“I have de­cided to be a can­di­date in the 2017 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion,” Sarkozy, who was voted out of of­fice in 2012, wrote in the fore­word to a new book Tout pour la France (All for France) due out later this week. “France de­mands that you give her your all. “I feel I have the strength to lead the fight at such a tur­bu­lent mo­ment in our his­tory,” he wrote in the book ex­tract, al­lud­ing to the string of ter­ror at­tacks that have rocked the coun­try in the past year and a half.

His aides said he would be step­ping down on Mon­day as the leader of the Repub­li­cans party to fo­cus on his cam­paign.

Sarkozy listed five main chal­lenges in the years ahead: keep­ing prom­ises made to the na­tion, de­fend­ing na­tional iden­tity, restor­ing lost com­pet­i­tive­ness, en­forc­ing state au­thor­ity and striv­ing “to re­store con­fi­dence and hope in the fu­ture”. — AFP.